By a vote of 7-2.
From the opinion by the chief justice: "An execution method violates the Eighth Amendment [which prohibits "cruel and unusual punishment"] only if it is deliberately designed to inflict pain."
Terrific to consider that we're responsible for the suffering we collectively inflict only if we do it not just irresponsibly or recklessly but intentionally and sadistically. Explains a lot of our foreign policy, doesn't it? Though not the torture part...
The prison writings of Alexei Navalny
19 hours ago
Ugh. You're so right. This formula he's using, determining what's constitutional based on the first intended outcome, not the actual outcome, is an old ethical formula that really doesn't hold up in our modern society. I know that the Court doesn't determine what's ethical but what is constitutional. That legal maneuvering seems to go against the true intentions of the Constitution.
ReplyDelete"No, no, we're not idealogues, we're 'strict constitutionalists.'" *cough*bullshit!*cough*
ReplyDelete